


December Acts Selflessly

by Zaniida



Series: Monthly Prompts for 2018 [12]
Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: Capture, Challenges, Episode: s03e22 A House Divided, Episode: s03e23 Deus Ex Machina, Fatalistic, Gen, Kidnapping, Monthly Challenges, My Bread-and-Butter, Short, elbows-friendly, introspective, prompts, yet somehow endearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-01
Updated: 2018-12-01
Packaged: 2019-09-05 07:14:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16805953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zaniida/pseuds/Zaniida
Summary: It's time for making presents.  If you don't have your own ideas yet, grab a mug of cocoa and pull up a chair by the fire, and let's talk possibilities.





	December Acts Selflessly

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Ioga](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ioga/gifts).



> **Ioga** _, thank you for dropping by and reading my work. Getting to watch you start enjoying Person of Interest (without even having seen it yet!) because of my writing has been a great joy. I hope you'll find many more awesome fics to read_ ^_^
> 
> * * *
> 
> This isn't like the other prompts; this is just suggestions for presents you could make this month. I'm sure that many of you already have your plans to write/draw presents for people, but my prompt here is for those of you who could use some ideas.
> 
> Specifically: There are basically three useful weeks before Christmas, so I have a suggestion to find three specific people to write (or draw) presents for. Save each piece as a **draft** , and when Christmas Eve rolls around, publish them all at once!
> 
>  **First Gift: Someone New**  
>  Find someone who started commenting on your fics quite recently, and write a short story for _them_.
> 
> Alternatively, find a fandom newbie -- someone who joined the site quite recently, or doesn't yet know the ropes.
> 
>  **Second Gift: Someone Inspiring**  
>  Which piece of work meant the most to you this year? Write a present for its author.
> 
> Alternatively, if a comment or other type of feedback meant a lot to you, write a present as a thank-you for _that_.
> 
>  **Third Gift: Someone Quiet**  
>  Is there someone in your comments section who hasn't even written a single fic yet? Now's the time to show _them_ some love.
> 
> I think the lurkers and non-authors are sometimes forgotten as we trade fics back and forth between the authors, but the readers who aren't authors are still a big part of this site (and fandom in general).
> 
> * * *
> 
> **Guidelines**
> 
> If you don't already have an idea of how to write these gifts, try these prompts (in reverse order!):
> 
>  **A Quiet Gift**  
>  Look through the comments from this person, and figure out things that they like about your work. Now create a short fic that focuses on these details. Or create a side story or vignette related to one of the fics that they enjoy.
> 
>  **An Inspiring Gift**  
>  From your favorite fics by this author, pull out three lines that you really enjoy (or three things they've said in their comments). Then craft a fic around those lines. Or create a piece of fan art related to their fic.
> 
>  **A New Gift**  
>  Create a piece of fan art related to one of their fics. Or pick out a common theme or pairing in their fics so far, and write something related to that.
> 
> So, those are just some ideas. If you keep the fics short, it shouldn't be too hard to get one written per week. (Says Zaniida, the gal with abysmal time-management skills.)
> 
> Since I don't want to post a suggestion without actually having written something, one of my presents goes out early. Hope you like this, **Ioga**! I went by your comment about wanting something that explains things more clearly, and also the **Strong Adversary** trope, which definitely happens to Finch a lot. Of course, Finch is in no position to fight back, so he usually just goes along quietly; I hope that still counts for that trope, for you.
> 
> (I thought about making a Reese fic, given your response to him, but I thought it might be time to introduce you to a [certain fanvid](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOcsupM7_88) that does a much better job than any short fic of mine could do. Enjoy, and Merry Christmas!)

Harold Finch, avid reader, once bought fifteen libraries rather than see those grand old buildings go to waste. Back when he was three, his parents had caught him sounding out words from a copy of _Better Homes and Gardens_ ; in the five decades since then, he’s managed to cover all the literary greats: _Gilgamesh_ and _Don Quixote_ , _The Trial_ and _Siddhartha_ , _Metamorphoses_ and _One Thousand and One Nights_ , and beyond.

With such a body of work in his head, he’s picked up on a lot of tropes. For example, the countless variations on the _damsel in distress_ , a helpless young woman awaiting her death -- a trope that ranges all the way back to at least Iphigenia, sacrificed by her own father to appease the gods. And yet, the inversion isn’t particularly rare: In folk tales, women often saved their own menfolk, whether husband or brothers, and there are plenty of examples of Action Girls (a term he learned just a few months ago) whose male sidekicks are often in need of rescuing.

No, what makes Harold rare isn’t his gender. It’s that usually, when a guy gets kidnapped in literature, it’s to highlight some connection to a female character. Or, at minimum, to show how impressive he is while escaping on his own. Neither of which will ever apply to Harold Finch.

He contemplates this disparity, as a way to distract himself from the pain of his arms being wrenched behind his back, a zip tie cinched tight around his wrists before he’s marched downstairs, the dark hood leaving him utterly at the mercy of his captors. His _second_ set of captors, in fact; he’s spent the past few hours in the hands of Decima, and now it’s Vigilance that gets to tug at his metaphorical leash.

 _For Grace_ , he thinks, trying to quell the fear and panic rising up inside him. Because, just as he’d told Reese, this day has always been looking for him. A day when he can’t run anymore; a day when his carefully constructed house of cards comes tumbling down around his ears and there is nothing for it but, like Iphigenia, to face his death with whatever dignity he can still muster.

Two years ago, he’d been kidnapped for the first time. A year after that, the same woman had come for him again, and he’d gone along with her rather than risk any harm to Grace. In between the two, he’d been (briefly) kidnapped by a serial killer, and, later, captured while trying to bust a crooked casino; each time, he’d been sure that it would be the end for him.

That kind of fatalism should’ve been a one-time occurrence: one way or the other, over and done. But not for Harold Finch.

Reese had once been kidnapped, too, and captured any number of times -- by the mob, the cops, the feds; it wasn’t as though Harold’s experience was unique. Of course, Reese probably didn’t feel this pounding fear every time it happened, and he certainly didn’t default to “freeze” any time a gun got pointed in his general direction. Hell, Reese has been through drug-resistance training and outright _torture_ ; Harold has gotten drugged precisely once, so far, and it had been his own damn fault, and he _still_ goes into cold sweats at the thought of it happening again.

 _Well_ , he thinks, as they pull his unresisting body up into some sort of van, _either I live through this, or I don’t_. Maybe Reese will track him down in time -- after making sure that Grace is safely out of the country, still not aware that her fiancé is even alive. Because the awareness itself would put her in even greater danger. And he’d rather be a damsel in distress a thousand times than to ever see her in that role again.

So maybe he was wrong. Maybe his captivity does reveal a connection to a woman. Not that she’s rescuing him, like in the folk tales, but that it’s the thought of her that makes him brave enough to turn himself over to their enemies, to walk into the lion’s den and face whatever fate awaits him, one more time.

 _For Grace_.

**Author's Note:**

> [October's prompt](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16173200) has closed, with two takers (Triss_Hawkeye and Murus). I hope more of y'all will consider writing obscure emotions (or drawing Essential Emotions for the POI cast!), but the deadline to affect my follow-up has passed.
> 
> [November's prompt](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16494590) still has a month to go.
> 
> * * *
> 
> **News**
> 
> With regards to _Unseen Things_ , I must apologize for not getting my stuff together in the past month. I've got a good amount of the next section written, but, as is not uncommon for me, I have had extreme difficulty with that executive-function thing where I actually sit down and focus on the one thing I'm supposed to be doing.
> 
> Well, I did have a couple other things that needed to be done, and, on top of that, I spent the better part of a week sick right after Thanksgiving (some bug leveled our entire household for several days; that was fun). But not enough to justify the lapse. Again, apologies.
> 
> Anyway, I have been working on it. We're getting really close to a major cliffhanger, and I would like to really pull that off well before the new year. However, if it gets too close to Christmas before the chapter's ready, I'll put it off, because this is not the sort of thing that ought to be a Christmas update.
> 
> I do have a piece or two that I had mostly finished before October reared its head, and I might see about posting them at some point, just to get something up for y'all to read. Plus, Christmas presents and all =^.^= (a bit more targeted, this year, if all goes well).
> 
> Hope your December is going well!


End file.
